🧳 Billionaires Are Packing Up

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California wants 5% of its billionaires' entire net worth. Worldwide.

On Nov. 3, voters decide on Proposition 40, a one-time wealth tax on the state's billionaires.

They can pay it all at once or spread it over five annual installments. Like a sofa on finance, but with ten figures.

Here's what's going on 👇

To make that real: 5% of a $100 billion fortune is a $5 billion tax bill. For one person.

The state expects to raise about $100B between 2027 and 2031. That's roughly $20B a year.

Where does it go? Mostly state-funded healthcare, which took heavy cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The rest goes to K-14 public education and food assistance.

The drafters also saw the escape routes coming. Trusts, global assets and offshore wealth are all in scope.

The Cayman Islands trick has been pre-emptively un-tricked.

The tax is already reshaping corporate America, and nobody has voted yet.

Mark Zuckerberg struck a deal with Meta that gives him more freedom to sell shares while keeping control of the company.

The mechanism: a stock split creating new non-voting Class C shares. Sell those, keep the votes.

In return, Zuck pledged to stay a California resident for eight years (or wherever Meta keeps its HQ). This from a man who previously threatened to leave.

Others likely in the firing line:

Some didn't wait around. Before the Jan. 1, 2026 cutoff, a few big names packed up:

Turns out the cheapest tax strategy is a removal van. 🚚

California is split down the middle.

Supporters say it makes billionaires pay their fair share, instead of sitting on huge piles of passive wealth that never gets taxed.

Opponents argue that:

For investors, keep an eye on founder-controlled California companies.

A multibillion-dollar tax bill doesn't get paid out of a current account. If Prop 40 passes, founders may need to sell stock to cover it, and more boards may copy Meta's playbook of non-voting share classes to keep founders in control.

Check the share structure of what you own. Voting rights may be about to get a lot more exclusive.

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Gold just slipped under $4,000 an ounce.

That's the first time since July 20. Friday's 1.2% drop was the shove that sent it through the floor.

If you bought the hype in January, you may want to sit down for this.

Rewind to January 29. Gold hit a record high after rallying above $5,500 an ounce. Everyone was a genius.

Since then? Gold is down 28.7% from that peak.

That's more than a quarter of its value gone. For an asset whose whole personality is "the safe one," that's a lot of drama.

But Gold didn't fall off a cliff. It's been leaking air for nine straight months.

Traders have been steadily rethinking how much of the shiny stuff they actually want to hold. Friday just sped things up.

The result: gold is back at mid-July prices, and most of the early-2026 gains have quietly left the building.

Think of it like a party that peaked at 11pm. By 3am, it's just you and someone looking for their coat.

Technically, $4,000 is just a number. Psychologically, it's a big deal.

Round numbers act like magnets for traders. Lots of buy and sell orders cluster around them.

So when gold breaks below one, two things can happen:

That's where we are right now. The market is watching to see if this level holds or turns into a trapdoor.

Here's the brutal maths of drawdowns: after a 28.7% fall, gold needs to rise roughly 40% just to get back to its record.

Losses and gains aren't symmetrical. Falling is easy. Climbing back is a hike.

If you hold gold as a portfolio hedge, this is a reminder that "safe haven" doesn't mean "low volatility." Gold can swing as hard as plenty of stocks.

And if you're watching from the sidelines, the $4,000 level is the line to watch in the coming sessions. Whether it holds will say a lot about where sentiment goes next.

Gold spent January acting like a rocket. It's spent the rest of the year acting like a rock.

SpaceX wants half of America's cell towers.

Not a typo. The rocket company is hunting for at least 80,000 cell sites across the US.

The goal? A fourth nationwide wireless carrier.

80,000 sites is a big number. The US had 158,500 purpose-built cell towers last year, per the Wireless Infrastructure Association.

SpaceX wants half of them.

You can't build that many towers overnight, so SpaceX is going shopping. It's in talks with at least one major tower company, and one of them is Crown Castle $CCI ( ▲ 9.06% ).

Crown Castle, American Tower $AMT ( ▲ 4.08% ) and Vertical Bridge Holdings are among the biggest tower landlords in the country. And landlords love a new tenant with deep pockets.

On Wednesday, Crown Castle CEO Christian Hillabrant was asked about leasing to SpaceX and Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 0.95% ). He said the company is talking to "all parties."

Translation? The phone is ringing, and he's picking up every call.

The market didn't wait for a signed contract.

Why do the big three care so much? Because US wireless has been a three-player game for years.

A new rival with SpaceX money and satellites already in orbit is exactly the kind of guest who ruins a cosy dinner party.

Tower owners are the picks-and-shovels play here. Whoever wins the phone plan war still needs somewhere to bolt their antennas. The landlords collect rent either way.

More competition usually means pressure on prices. Lovely for your phone bill. Less lovely for carriers whose margins depend on there being only three choices.

The catch: nothing is signed yet. Today's moves are built on a Bloomberg report and a CEO keeping his options open.

If the deals land, the US phone market gets a fourth player. If they don't, a lot of people just paid up for a rumour.

Elon already has the sky. Now he's eyeing the ground too.